Microbial fuel cell stack

• US 9,147,902 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2009
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences
• Original Assignee: Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences
• Inventors: Zhou, Shungui
• Primary Examiner(s): Cano, Milton I
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZENG, LINGWEN R
• Application Number:
  US12/498,023
• Publication Number:
  US 20100003543A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• Field of Search: 429400-535
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/16 Biochemical fuel cells, i.e. cells in which microorganisms function as catalysts
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/50 Fuel cells

Abstract

The present invention discloses a microbial fuel cell stack, which comprises a plurality of microbial fuel cells and is characterized in that the microbial fuel cell includes a perforated frame, a cathode and an anode, and that the cathode wraps the perforated frame to form an anode chamber, and that the anode is arranged inside the anode chamber. Wires are respectively extended from the cathode and the anode. The microbial fuel cells are connected head to tail sequentially via pipes, and thus the anode chambers thereof interconnect each other. The first microbial fuel cell of the cell stack has a feeding port, and the last one has a discharging port.

Claims

1. A microbial fuel cell stack, comprising:

a feeding port;

a discharging port;

a plurality of microbial. fuel cells disposed between the feeding port and the discharging port, each of the plurality of microbial fuel cells including a cathode, a perforated frame wrapped by the cathode, an anode chamber formed within the perforated frame, and an anode arranged inside said anode chamber, the cathode including a waterproof air-permeable layer, a fabric-based layer and a conductive catalytic layer from the inside to the outside, wherein the waterproof air-permeable layer is a PTPR (polytetrafluoroethlene) coating or a PVDF (polyvinylidenefluoride) coating that are coated on one surface of the fabric-based layer by a distribuation of 1.0-3.0 mg/cm², and wherein the plurality of microbial fuel cells are connected head to tail sequentially via pipes whereby the adjacent anode chambers interconnect with each other, and wherein the perforated frame includes a plurality of holes with a diameter of 0.5 -2 cm, and wherein the anode arranged inside the anode chamber connects to the cathode wrapping the perforated frame of next microbial fuel cell by a wire to form a series connection, wherein the pipe interconnecting the microbial fuel cells has a diameter from one fifth to one third of a diameter of the microbial fuel cell, and wherein the pipes and the frames is an one-piece component and segments of the pipe are perforated. to function as the frames and a space between two adjacent the frames is between 2 and 20 cm, and wherein the pipe is an insulating pipe having a diameter of 5-20 cm and the frame has a length of 10-30 cm and the holes have a hole density of 100-3000 holes/m².

2. The microbial fuel cell stack according to claim 1, wherein said pipes include elbows;

said pipes are connected by said elbows to allow said microbial fuel cells to be arranged horizontally or vertically or to form a multi-layer structure.

3. The microbial fuel cell stack according to claim 1, wherein said anode is made of graphite grains, a carbon felt, a carbon fabric, or a carbon fiber brush.

4. The microbial fuel cell stack according to claim 1 wherein said conductive catalytic layer is a coating of a mixture of an oxygen reduction catalytic and a conductive paint.

5. The microbial fuel cell stack according to claim 4, wherein said oxygen reduction catalytic and said conductive paint is mixed by a ratio of 1:

4-15;

said mixture of said oxygen reduction catalytic and. said conductive paint is coated on the other surface of said fabric-based layer.

6. The microbial fuel cell stack according to claim 4, wherein said conductive paint is a graphite-based conductive paint or a nickel-based conductive paint;

said oxygen reduction catalytic contains platinum, pyr-FePc (pyrolyzed iron(11) phthalocyanine), CoTMPP (cobalt tetramethoxyphenylporphyrin), or electrolyzed MnO2 (manganese dioxide).